Wages rose ‘across the board’ in Alaska last year. Here’s what some jobs pay.

The average wage in Alaska last year rose to $68,123 in an extra good year for pay increases, according to Alaska economists.

The 5% increase, up from $64,751 in 2022, was “fairly large” historically speaking, said Karinne Wiebold, an economist with the state, who helped write about the topic in the state’s latest Alaska Economic Trends magazine.

The increase outpaced inflation, unlike the previous year’s 4.2% average wage jump, she said in an interview.

“The other thing that makes it kind of remarkable is that the increases were across the board,” she said.

“Generally you see wages go up here or there, depending on what’s happening (in the economy). And in 2023, it was pretty much everywhere,” she said.

Employers paid more last year to attract workers in response to a widespread labor shortage, she said.

An aging workforce and years of net-outmigration have constrained the labor force, with more people leaving Alaska than coming here for 11 years, economists have said.

[Earlier coverage: Alaska’s working-age population continues its long decline, a headwind for the economy]

Also, employees last year also sought higher pay in response to inflation, adding to “wage pressure,” Wiebold said.

Wiebold said the effect of worker demand on pay was especially evident in construction, where average wages rose the most.

Construction wages jumped to $93,472, up 10% from $84,870 in 2022.

Construction has been the state’s fastest growing industry, said Dan Robinson, research chief for the agency, speaking at a recent business conference in Anchorage.

Major oil field projects and federal infrastructure spending helped raise demand for workers in the industry, he said.

The growth in construction jobs has helped boost job growth in Alaska. The state’s job growth is occurring at a faster pace than the rest of the U.S., reversing a trend from previous years, Robinson said.

Construction’s pay lagged behind only a few industries last year.

Oil and gas workers had the average highest wages, at $181,143, a 4% increase from 2022.

Federal workers also were among top earners, with average wages at $94,783, up 6%.

The report also tied educational attainment to wages, showing that in Alaska, big paydays are possible in professions without degrees. It also showed top incomes rise with more education.

In a category for jobs that didn’t require a bachelor’s degree, gas plant operators, air traffic controllers, detectives and criminal investigators earned a little over $120,000, the report said.

Compared to other states, Alaskans has more high-wage jobs that don’t require bachelor’s degrees, Wiebold said. Lucrative jobs in prominent resource extraction industries help increase that category, she said.

As educational attainment increases, so does the chance for more income, the report showed. Personal financial advisers received $227,000, the best-paid workers in a category looking at careers requiring a bachelor’s degree.

The highest average earners are in medical professions requiring graduate degrees. They ranged from general internal medicine physicians such as gastroenterologists, making $402,000, to physicians and pathologists making $252,000.